Easier
by claire sorrentino
Summary: One shot. Reno's last mission with Cissnei. Post Crisis Core.


**Easier**

Someone dies in the end. Someone always dies in the end. It doesn't have to be someone I like, but sometimes it is. It's the end of fall, but the pretty white of winter hasn't come in to cover up the decay and rot of dying and dead plants. Cissnei's breath puffs in white clouds and my cigarette smoke coils around me like a poison cloud. An icy wind slices at my exposed throat, almost, almost enough to make me want to tighten my collar and noose my tie.

"I hate the cold," Cissnei says, her soft voice almost completely stolen by the wind. "Hate it." She reaches cold, slender fingers into my pants pocket, stealing my last cigarette from the crumbled pack. She sticks it between her lips and turns her pretty brown eyes to me. I just stare. She's beautiful to me, but at the same time she just took my last cigarette and I'm on the job so I can't get more. She rolls her eyes, annoyed that I'm not catching her non-verbal request. "Light me," she orders.

I almost refuse, but in the end I don't. Consider a testament to how much I love the dumb girl. The end of my cigarette flares red as she takes a drag. We stand in silence, 'cept the screaming wind and the dancing of dead leaves on dirty streets. I can't even remember the name of the town. Someplace cold and nasty. I'd be able to remember the name if I tried. Whatever. It's not worth the effort.

Cissnei starts tapping the toe of her shoe on the ground, a quick, impatient noise. "Hate the cold," she mutters again. "Hate it. Wish I could have assignment in Costa Del Sol."

I'm trying to get the last dregs of nicotine from the stub of my cigarette and hers is still mostly fresh, so I sneer at her. "Thought you hated the heat and sun and sand."

She scowls. "I do, but that doesn't mean I like this shit better."

I'm transfixed by her cigarette. I got this plan to take it. Pop it out of her mouth and finish it myself. When I go to carry out the plan she slaps my hand and turns her body away from me. I'm left breathing her discarded smoke. And I'm angry. Pissed really. It was my cigarette in the first place. I can be a nice guy. Maybe. Well, probably not. I've never tried to be nice. I imagine me being nice is about as easy as it would be for Cissnei to sprout wings and finally fly away. In other words, not gonna happen. I slouch against the wall of the ally, hands shoved into my pockets. "It's the company that makes the difference," I say. "You'd like this assignment just fine if whatever his stupid name was -"

"Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class," she says, quickly and forcefully interjecting his name into my deliberately hurtful words. I hate him as much as she hates the cold. She's not done. She exhales smoke in my direction. "And no. I'm not giving you the rest. I took it. It's mine now." She shoots me a glare colder than the weather and then focuses forward, shoulders hunched against the wind.

"Sounds like someone didn't get her cherry popped before her man got himself drilled full of holes," I say, still bitter at her thievery. I should have stopped her sooner. Then I could pretend to be nice and playful with her. Somehow it doesn't matter what nasty, careless thing I say to Rude, he always forgives. Cissnei . . . not so much. This time she doesn't respond, so I consider leaving it alone. Maybe I went too far already. "I'm sorry," I say, eyes honed in on her, waiting, anticipating her reaction. I wanna see that softening of the corners of her mouth that means she'll let it go, that look her eyes get when the tension drains and she's happy.

She shoots me an annoyed look over her shoulder. Her eyes are narrowed, mouth a tight line. "Really? You're sorry? Sorry about what?"

I should apologize again, but I don't. "Sorry that I got the facts wrong," I say. "You ain't no virgin and he wasn't your man." I smirk.

"Gee, Reno," she says, meeting my eyes. A cruel smile twists at the corner of her mouth. Sometimes I forget she's a Turk and she burns me with her words. "I didn't realize that you kept surveillance on the status of my virginity." She takes a long drag, daring me to interput before adding in syrupy tones the rest of her insult. "Poor surveillance."

"What's that mean?" I hate Zack even more. What'd he ever deserve to get the girl? As near as I could tell he just ran around hollering about being a hero.

"Nothing," she says, abruptly done tormenting me. "What do you think it means?"

I don't say anything because now I'm pissed that Zack Fair might have actually slept with my Cissnei. And not just slept either. I try to imagine her entwined in his arms and suddenly I'm madder than I've ever been. "Enough of this waiting shit," I snap. "Let's just bust in there and take care of things." My rod snaps to life with a cackle of electricity and I'm across the street and kicking open the door to the house we were observing.

The wood is cheap and splinters on impact. "Yo," I say loudly. "We're here to kill you." I probably say the guy's name. I don't actually remember it at the moment. Just some poor Shinra employee who thought he could sell secrets to someone. Or something like that. Maybe he was embezzling? It doesn't really matter what he was doing, what mattered was that he'd pissed someone off enough to get me sent in to kill his dumb ass.

And then there he was, stumbling from the bedroom in a pair of boxer shorts and a sweat stained white wife beater. He was balding, with a bad comb over that was so gelled into place that even sleep couldn't muse it. His round belly preceded him into the room. He was dead before Cissnei cleared the door behind me. "Reno," she hisses, horrified. Horrified? Why was she horrified? She should be impressed. I hardly even raised much of a commotion.

"Mission over. I'm going to buy pack of cigarette and a bottle of whiskey. Wanna come?" I try to hide my anger. I'm good at it. Years of practice playing the lazy, unruffled thug.

She shakes her head, tendrils of copper flying about her face. Her crimson shuriken is naked in her hand. "Shh," she whispers, eyes on the street. Next door someone slams a door and I can hear several people moving into the street.

"What for?" I ask, keeping my voice low even though I don't want to.

She peers out at the street, head cocked to the side. "It's the wrong house Reno."

"Huh?"

"He wasn't the target."

"Shit." I start towards the door, but she motions me to stop. She's watching the real target. I hear a car door open. Her shuriken whistles through the air. I step around her, watching a tall, thin man's body fall to the street, her shuriken in his back. "That the target?"

"Yeah." She spits out the stub of my cigarette, crushing it beneath her heel.

I exhale in relief. "Good. Mission over. Let's go get some sin."

Someone comes down the hall, halting her response. Her body stiffens and we listen to the sound of quiet bare feet shuffling along cold floor boards. I don't remember the kid. We left before it rounded the corner. Two murderers crashing into its life and then slipping into the dying shadows of dawn.

We stroll in silence. The town is on the edge of the woods and dry leaves dance in front of us. I don't say much because Cissnei doesn't want to hear it. She's gotten funny about death since the SOLDIER boy died. It's getting to her and I don't like it. I'm afraid it'll make her slip in battle. That's why I'd insisted on coming tonight. I planned on killing the target so she wouldn't have to. Easier that way. Plus she'd get a chance to bounce back.

I stop us in front of a bar with neon blue lights illuminating a topless girl in the window. "My kinda place," I say. "Wanna drink? C'mon, it's on me."

Cissnei follows me in, but doesn't stay. Says she has to talk to Tseng. I'm still mad at her for having sex with Zack, so I wave her off and suggest that she file our report so I don't have to do it in the morning.

In the morning, Cissnei didn't show up for work. Her desk was gone. Her file was gone. Tseng claimed she never existed and that if she did, she was dead now. Outside, the first pure white snow fell in a heavy curtain of light. And just like Tseng I pretend she never existed. It's easier.


End file.
